HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has paid tribute to his sides’ second-half performance, as the Hawks turned an 11-point half-time deficit into a 45-point win.

The Hawks outscored the Pies 13 goals to four in the second-half to keep their finals hopes well and truly alive with an 18.13 (121) to 11.10 (76) win.

“Collingwood got a little bit of momentum, they probably took control of the second half of the second quarter,” Clarkson said

“We had a tremendous application to the contest right across the game - for our guys to kick seven (in the third quarter) it really set the game up.”

Clarkson said he could see the signs the Hawks were ready to end the Pies seven-game winning streak from the opening bounce

“From the first bounce tonight there were Hawthorn jumpers attacking the footy and putting enormous pressure on the Collingwood side,” he said.

Clarkson said his side performance against the Magpies was one of the best from the Hawks this season.

“I thought our attack on the footy and the pressure we applied to the Collingwood side was as good as I’ve seen from our guys this season,” he said

The performance of midfielder Luke Hodge, who led from the front with 34 possessions, five clearances, six tackles and three goals and captain Sam Mitchell, who collected 25 possessions and also kicked three goals won enormous praise from the coach.

“They really led from the front – both Hodge and Mitchell did not want to lose tonight their attitude to their training and their approach to tonight and their leadership has been first class,” he said.

“We probably lacked midfield goals during the year and for those guys to kick three each was really important to our goal scoring potency”

The Hawthorn coach was also impressed by the performance of young Hawk Ryan Schoenmakers, who kept key Collingwood forward Travis Cloke goalless for the match.

It was a little bit of a punt playing such a young fella on Travis Cloke,” he said.

“We threw caution to the wind and backed the lad in and he did a super job on Travis - his effort tonight was first class.”

Clarkson is hoping his side can build on that confidence when they take on the Cats next Saturday afternoon at the MCG

“We will be around the mark with any team in the competition if we retain that type of competiveness,” he said.

“We are looking forward to next week against the Cats – we can’t afford to look any further.”

“We are going to be chasing them pretty hard next Saturday.”